American Sociopathic

No, I’m not trying to be funny. I don’t even wish I was trying. America has a lot of good in it, maybe even more than some other nations, but where is that good going? Is it going to benefit America 100 years from now, or be forgotten? Will America be fondly remembered when it eventually becomes something else? Our best years seem to be behind us, at least as far as any economic, financial, ethical, military, or governance indicator goes. In short, this is the other side of the bell curve. Nothing negative about telling the truth, really. Facts aren’t innately positive or negative. It’s good to know if you’re facing South, or North, before you start walking 100 miles. To continue the compass motif, we’re not just heading South, we’re heralding an entire new epoch of Southbound. You get the point, and I don’t want to flagellate a deceased equine, so let’s move on.

Personally, I would love to see the good that is the USA become something permanent, or serve a greater purpose than bombing 2 to 3 nations a year, promoting a thousand social illnesses, and ensuring class warfare along with permanent crippling failure of our nation and national interests. I don’t want to see a corporatocracy come into being, but that’s exactly what has happened. Facebook founder maintains extreme privacy about himself, while loudly proclaiming that no one else has the right to any privacy, and that’s the face of this new governance. “I’ve got mine, too bad about you.” We’re a money morality society, and I don’t need to explain why that’s bad.

Bill Gates rented a private island so he could have total privacy for his wedding, and now his company has signed on to invade the privacy of the entire world with the authority and permission of the US Government. Hypocrisy for 500, Alex? Advanced stealth fighters? Manufactured in 22 nations. National security? outsourced to corporations. Civil Rights? Gone. You now have the right to be accused without evidence, tried without a jury, and executed without appeal. Thank the extensions of the Patriot Act for that, and both political parties who swept the original act, and all updates, through Congress without review or even reading it.

If the liberals understood what was going on in the multinational corporatocracy, they’d be discovering their spines and walking like Egyptians. If the Republicans knew how thoroughly their party has betrayed them, they’d be arm in arm with the Anarchists and burning buildings. Neither voter should ever vote for another Democrat or Republican again, if they knew what was good for them. Pick Green, Libertarian, or even the Socialist party. You can’t do any worse than what we have, and what we have is Greece on a scale too large for most people to understand.

So wikileaks was disliked, and the US decided to go after them. That spawned four other investigative hacking groups who resented the intrusion into our rights to monitor, and even control, our own government. Then they decided to persecute hackers, which is always a terribly brilliant thing to attempt, if history is any indication of just how hopeless that is. Going after Lulzsec and GeoHotz was like throwing gas on the fire. Now there are hundreds of groups springing up around the world to vindicate, expose, and vilify any government that lies. Seeing as most governments routinely lie to their own people, all in fact except China do just that, I can see why the US and European allies are upset. They have a lot to lose, and deserve to lose.

Yes, China has a propaganda office too. The name on the building? “Propaganda Office.” Americans truly do not understand Asian cultures. The Chinese are amazingly honest about the activities of their government. They just don’t like being called names. Honestly, that’s most of it. China could care less what you think about them, the attempts and cancelling dissent are not to keep Americans quiet and to keep Chinese ignorant. The Chinese are hardly ignorant at all, as their own Governance offices PRODUCE everything bad you’ve ever read about China. That’s how little Americans understand this nation, that the average American hates on China without realizing that the very criticism you’ve read or agree with – came from China itself.

I’m not saying they’re awesome, but they are, and so is America. We are just two very different nations. I’m still not cheerleading for either nation, I’m just pointing out facts, and remember that facts alone are not positive or negative. It’s just data. Perception is all in your head, and that’s a Psychiatry joke. China finds it rude and even detrimental to allow open discourse regarding government planning. This is another fact, and by Chinese culture, they’re absolutely correct. So you just got out of a short prison trip for protesting or criticizing China? My apologies, but you knew better, and you knew the rules under which you could have avoided the jail time without sacrificing your opinions. China allows discussion, individually. China does not allow civilian review of heavily-debated policies that they’re still trying to shape. That’s the buddhist equivalent of a racist comment.

What about the freedom of speech thing? Stand up and shout fire in a theater sometime, and you’ll learn a lot about “freedom” of speech in America. You would actually HAVE freedom of speech if you were Chinese. Here, you have only “protected speech.” Only that speech which the law agrees with can be protected. Nice, that. China doesn’t look so bad when you compare it to America on even terms. My speech here is “protected” as a blogger. But, in the wrong places I could actually be arrested for saying these things. Places like courthouses, public street corners, and schools. Yeah, most Chinese protesters are actually arrested IN THESE SAME PLACES or for speaking out in those locations. Same here, so no score all around, right? Wrong.

China goes out of its way to CLEARLY state what freedom of speech is, how you can do it, and where you should refrain. They expect self-censorship. Say what now? Yes, China actually expects its people to know and understand how to censor themselves. That is why they don’t usually try to control the media, or stop things from happening that are later viewed as embarrassing. America doesn’t do that, we have gag orders, secret police, active censorship laws to black out entire events, national security, and more. China does not need all that. They just want their own civilians to be self-regulated. I’d love to try that system here. Given the choice, I’d pick a Chinese system over what we have in the USA. Remember what freedom IS? I don’t think most Americans even understand the question.

Why? Why do I think this? Why are my articles so anti-American in style? They aren’t, as I like America a lot, but I see our problems with no illusions or false beliefs to cloud my mind. I don’t live in denial or believe in mythical beings. Education has corroded to the point that we no longer have much of an education system to speak of. Pirates in Somalia might get a better school than most ethnically populated American cities. People here just do not understand intelligence, or they would not make fun of it. Our society does not value science, or it wouldn’t be such a low-paying field. Sales Managers get paid more than any other job category. Lawyers and Doctors are actually much further down the list, not even in the top ten, except for Anesthesiologists. Educators? Bottom rung, right below garbage collection.

Why are our values so slanted? Why don’t teachers and scientists earn more than the more negative career elements of our nation? Why do brain-dead MBA holding CEOs embezzle, lie, screw up, and then deserve a golden parachute, while NO SCIENTIST has any pension? Except for individual Universities, and private pensions, there is no retirement for being a scientist. Meanwhile, the MBA with “no math requirement” get’s six times the pay. There’s a good reason for this. It’s called corruption.

The US governance system allows bribery. The US governance system allows corporations and very influential individuals to dictate policies within certain groups. The US governance system then allows both the unelected groups, and bribery, to be combined in what is commonly known as Congress. yes, you read that right. People who were NOT elected, work in Congress through campaign after campaign, and continue doing exactly what they should never do – pass laws to favor special groups. Our laws allow ex-Senators to immediately go into lobbying the government. This is outlawed in China, punishable by death. Bribery is also a felony in China, and the more influence you have, the worse the punishment in China, right up to the death penalty for accepting a bribe. America could stand to copy that system, right up to the killing of people who take bribes.

How can an ethical scientist advocate for a scenario that allows the death penalty? When the harm that person has done is so vast that it inflicts suffering on an entire nation, AND there is no way to repay or repair the damage, AND knew all along that they were doing so. That’s the same reason why some people argue that Bush Jr should be imprisoned and face the death penalty himself, for intentionally creating a false war. We could learn a lot from the Chinese, who have never attacked any other nation. China has never sent troops outside its borders in more than 5000 years of recorded history. They have fought AT the borders, but not beyond. Tibet? It was Tibet’s own military who answered to the Chinese, and the argument has ground under it that Tibet has always been Chinese. Same goes for Taiwan, but China has never invaded Taiwan despite being given good reason to do so. Most of what you hear about Chinese oppression is overblown, out of context, and very American.

While America was passing the third addendum to the Patriot Act, China and Russia were putting together a referendum on human and civil rights for all of the Asian continent. That’s very opposite-land. One might even say Bizarre. How did all this come to pass? An under-educated, contentious, spoiled class of people who didn’t care. Boomers. I like to call them “Bombers” because the Bomber generation has attacked a sovereign nation almost every year that it has existed.

People of the Boomer generation passed the Patriot Act, unread. Boomers repeatedly voted to extend their own benefits, at the cost of the rest of America, and at the cost of future generations. Boomers closed ranks and formed electoral laws that protected the status quo, almost making any third party impossible. Many people still believe that America will never have a third party, and that is reflected in the way that people vote. Less than 3% vote for any other party even though more than 30% of the nation is upset with its own government at almost any time in any presidency. That contempt for others, and self-righteousness of Boomers is coming home to roost. I feel no pity. It’s an ugly, short-sighted, selfish, and hateful generation.

I’m not saying that each Boomer is, because that’s stupid. I’m talking macro, not micro. Though largely Republican, still, the Democrats are no better. Liberals can not be let off the hook. They too conspired to allow this nation to fade, without any grace, into a corruption that is now a mockery of itself. Regardless of your party, hate is still hate, and greed is still greed. No agency understands pure greed and consolidated power the way the US Congress does.

Many European nations consider America to be THE terrorist state. This is hard to argue against, to say the least. I’m not happy with it at all. I served honorably in the US Navy, and this chain of events leading to America sponsoring war around the globe is a useless, selfish, and wasteful thing. These wars benefit only a tiny few. To those few go Billions in revenue. Corrupt? Bank Failure? Pay off the rich, and then sock the poor with higher taxes, and cut all public programs that the rich never use. While screaming about welfare, Corporations and Congress swelled the pork projects to all time highs. Billions of dollars to special groups. Trillions to bail out the guilty. Trillions for war, against nations that never attacked America. The middle class? They get higher taxes, foreclosures, and good luck finding a job.

A single story tells the entire problem of American culture: A community in California was told they would have a rate hike if they did not conserve water, because there were fewer water resources to go around since Arizona started claiming more of its water rights. The town rallied around the government and the water agency, and cut water use in HALF. The result? The government authorized the agency to increase its rates. Now they pay twice as much, and get LESS water than if they’d just failed to conserve. Obviously, the rate hike was going to happen anyway, but the governance boards lied to their people, misled the public, and shilled for the agency. When they were sued by their own citizens, the agency prevailed, and increased rates again.

That is America. You are toast no matter what you do, because the system is designed to work AGAINST YOU. The citizen is the ENEMY.

Until people realize that being smart is not bad, that education is THE priority, and that peace is better than war, we will not have a sane government. We will continue to get “the government that we deserve” as some comedians have noted. That’s the strongest and most sarcastic statement I’ve ever seen in my whole life, that America has the government that it deserves. Well, if you all go out and vote Democrat and Republican, I guess it’s true, because all we’d need to do to change things is for about 35% of both parties to vote Green AND Libertarian. We’d have a new government within months.

Einstein was not perfect. He had memory problems. He failed math classes. Tesla, now widely regarded as one of the most brilliant men to ever live, was once believed to be insane and unreliable. Genius is not rewarded in America. Greed is.

Can you even wonder that we who have high IQs and science degrees don’t go out of our way to be in the public eye? The public can barely understand math at all, and would prefer to talk about what was on television last night. It’s not easy to deal with that sort of disconnect. I’ve noted that some scientists who do public speaking tend to act as though they are talking to children. I’m sure it’s very hard not to fall into that bias, when people assail your logic every time you speak – and have no ability to use it themselves.

Vote Green, or Vote Libertarian, or Vote for ANY other party. Voting Demo-publican is voting for stagnation and chaos. The only way to waste your vote is to NOT vote for anything DIFFERENT. You will never change the world by supporting the status quo.

Stop beating up scientists. We don’t get paid a lot, we love what we do, and you might not be able to understand it but we do. So, please just accept that there are no UFOs, no bigfoot, no Aliens, and that our government kinda is terrible. US laws are based upon 13th century baronies and favor class over citizen. Judges are biased and have no uniform code that they’re required to adhere to. Congress and States are corrupt, stupid, greedy, and worse. NY is almost criminal in its fanatical regard for fascism.

YOU voted for the Senators who created the laws, that accepted the bribes, that ended up building and staffing our universities. YOU made it possible for me to become a scientist, under rules that do not favor me. Why would you then refuse to listen? The entire system is insane.

Department of Defense? All they do is offense. Department of the Interior? Is outdoors. Commerce? Owned by foreign companies. Census? Can’t count. Economics? Nobody listens to them, least of all Presidents. It’s a system of crazy, staffed by lunatics, and voted for by the ignorant. Reminds me of the Roman Empire every single time I think or talk about it.

You all know what happened to the Roman Empire, don’t you? The government became fat, bloated, corrupt, and started making nutcases their rulers. Senate seats could be purchased. You could buy votes, start wars, and get anything you wanted with the right friends and enough money. Just like America.

It says a lot about America that we have a Department of Education which does everything it can to prevent people from having any.

If you believe in God or gods, then understand that not everyone does, and that’s okay. That’s what brought people TO America. The greatness that was America was our tolerance of others, our intense diversity, and the freedom of opportunity coupled with limited government. We had open immigration from any nation, and we became the most powerful nation because of it.

Denying that we have a bad government will not make it get better, it will help it to get much worse. Working to improve government is not wrong, it’s patriotic. Polarizing issues, hating people, watching too much television, and believing in authority is what hurts America.

There’s only one description for American society as a whole: Sociopath. One who seeks destruction regardless of damage to themselves, that’s sociopathic; a person would be arrested but as a group we are immune to logic as well as consequences until the entire stage collapses around us.